University of Sulaimani Participates at Erasmus+ TIGRIS Project Kick-Off Meeting in Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Dr Ridha Hasan Hussein, President, and Dr Karzan G. Khidhir,
Director of International Academic Relations and Media, from University of
Sulaimani Participates at Erasmus + TIGRIS Project Kick-Off Meeting on 9th –
10th November 2017, at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany.

University of Sulaimani representatives also participated at
the 70th anniversary celebration of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen prior to
the Kick-Off Meeting of the TIGRIS Project.

The Kick off meeting of the Erasmus + TIGRIS Projectwas started by a welcome and
introduction from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Then each partner
institution gave a presentation about the institution Overview &
International Status Quo, institutional Strengths, institutional Challenges and
desired Areas for Improvement.

The TIGRIS project coordinator, Georg-August-Universität
Göttingen, then presented the Project Overview, Evaluation, & Work Packages.
The Project Finances - Budget & Financial Regulations as well as the Project
Management – Procedures & Processes were explained by the coordinating
institute.

During the second day of the kick off meeting, Detailed
Overview of Work Packages, Question Session on the Work Packages, Next Steps
& Future Milestones and Concluding Remarks were all discussed.

The Transfer of Good practices & Reinforcement of
Internationalisation Strategies in Kurdistan (TIGRIS) project is funded by the
Erasmus + Programme of the European Union.

The TIGRIS Project has been awarded for EU co-funding within
the framework of the Erasmus+ programme “Capacity Building in the Field of
Higher Education”. Capacity building projects in the field of higher education
support the modernisation, accessibility, and internationalisation of higher
education in Partner Countries, in this project in Kurdistan region.

The TIGRIS Project, which will run for 3 years from 2017 –
2020, is coordinated by the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany.

Objectives of the project:

The TIGRIS Project will aim to work on three different
levels in order to support the modernisation, accessibility, and
internationalisation of higher education in Kurdistan. At an institutional
level, the project will capitalise upon internationalisation as a process with
the potential to further develop Kurdish HEIs. In this way, the project will
seek to contribute to the modernisation of the partner universities involved
within the Kurdistan region by strengthening management structures and services
for international relations, and building advanced strategic policies related
to the internationalisation of education, research, mobility and student
services which will bring the Kurdish partner HEIS more in line with the EHEA.

The following objectives have been determined for the TIGRIS
Project, which the partners will seek to address throughout the project’s
lifespan and within the activities undertaken:

Improve
the quality of Higher Education in Kurdistan;

Develop
new and innovative education programmes;

Modernise
the Higher Education system in Kurdistan through policy reform;

Create
and implement national legislation which will facilitate the accreditation
of joint and double degrees, the recognition of studies abroad, and the
ECTS;

Foster
cooperation across different regions of the world via joint initiatives
and collaborative action;

Develop
advanced strategic polices regarding the internationalisation of
education, collaborative research, academic mobility, and international
student services within Kurdistan which will bring Kurdish HEIs closer to
their European counterparts;

Transfer
best practices and disseminate knowledge so as to understand how to
cooperate within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European
Research Area (ERA).

Expected Impact:

The TIGRIS Project is anticipated to exert the following
short-term and long-term academic and social impacts:

Increased
interest and recognition of the importance of internationalisation in
stutdent and staff development;

The
creation of a framework for the recognition of studies conducted abroad;

The
establishment of joint ventures/programmes (both national and
international);

The
creation of a group of experts tasked with disseminating knowledge about
the EHEA system and transferring knowledge to other HEIs and the wider
academic community;

The
internationalisation of the HE system in Kurdistan;

The
development of a benchmarking tool for mapping the quality of
internationalisation in Kurdish HEIs;

Lifelong
learning skills for senior managers and International Relations Officers;

The
integration of internationalisation strategies within HEIs;

An
increased quality of education in Kurdistan;

Increased
cooperation between Kurdistan and the EHEA;

Increased
awareness of the internationalisation of Kurdistan in the EHEA and other
countries worldwide.